Dispensable coil package

ABSTRACT

A shipping and dispensing package comprising coils comprising a plurality of radial layers, each layer comprising a helical winding of insulated wire or other strand and a thin-walled, stretchable, polymeric membrane enclosing and compressing the coils and having an aperture for pulling the wire from within the package.

United States Patent Hubbard et al. I

[54] DISPENSABLE COIL PACKAGE [72] lnventorsz Ronald R. Hubbard; RichardN.

Nalevanko, both of Orange, Calif.

[73] Assignee: Anaconda Wire and Cable Company [22] Filed: Feb. 17, 1970[21] Appl. No.: 11,997

[52] US. Cl. ..242/159, 206/52 W, 206/59 B, 242/129, 242/171, 242/172[51] Int. Cl .......B 65h 55/02, B65h 49/00- [58] Field of Search..242/159,l70,171,172,129;

[56] References Cited UNITED. STATES PATENTS R9,605 3/1881 Palmer..242/17'1 x 1,063,646 6/1913 Bournonville ..242/l7l 1,937,468 11/1933Talbot ..242/170 UX [151 3,700,185 1451 Oct. 24, 1972 Adams ..242/171 X2,720,309 10/1955 Kimball"; ..242/170 UX 3,355,010 ll/l967 Harrison..206/46 R 3,374,882 3/1968 Amaliksen ..-...206/46 R 3,397,773 8/1968Harrison et a1 ..206/46 R X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 31 1,122

Primary Examiner-Stanley N. Gilreath Attorney-Victor F. Volk [57]ABSTRACT A shipping and dispensing package comprising coils comprising aplurality of radial layers, each layer comprising a helical winding ofinsulated wire or other strand and a thin-walled, stretchable, polymericmembrane enclosing and compressing the coils and having an aperture forpulling the wire from within the package. I

1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures '5/1929 GreatBritain...-..... .....242/171PATENTEDHBTM I972 3.700.185

' INVENTORJ RR. HUBBARD RM NALEVANKO PM By w? M BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION Insulated electrical wire, and particularly so-called buildingwire is customarily delivered in 500 or 1,000

foot coils fromwhich the wire is pulled at an installation site, afterthe coil has been removed from its fiberboard shipping container and hasbeen laid on some substantially horizontal surface. Fiberboard boxes arealso used having removable wall panels so that the wire could bewithdrawn without removing the coil bodily from its container. Thislatter device has not proved satisfactory because in the large majorityof cases, snarls or tangles develop in the coils during payoff and it isnecessary to tear apart the containers, after all, to straighten out thetangles. Indeed, tangles in conventional coils are the rule rather thanthe exception and the elimination vof such tangles constitutes one ofthe principal purposes and advantages of the present invention. Thereason that tangles do occur in conventional boxed wire coils appears tobe that the turns of the coils become interchanged by the shaking orvibration that isunavoidable duringtransportation, either by truck or byrail.

When conventional coils are removed from their containers for pay-offthey are open to abrasion and soiling and to spontaneous spreading openof the coil, particularly as its sizeis reduced. If, however, the coilsare left in their containers for removal through the panel cut outs,close inspection of the container markings is required to identify thesize and color of the wire. This sometimes leads to costly mistakes ininstallation but always to lost time for the installation crew.

SUMMARY We have made an invention, hereinbelow described, by which thedeficiencies of present coil packaging are overcome. By means of ourinvention the coils can be paid off at high speed without any tangling,and at the same time remain visible and protected from dirt andabrasion. For this purpose we have invented a dispensable supply unit ofstrand comprising a coil of the strand with a large plurality of radiallayers, each of which comprises a helical winding of the strand. Athinwalled, stretchable, polymeric membrane snugly encloses andcompresses the coil, and is stretched across the central open core ofthe coil. A peripheral edge in the membrane defines a small opening overthe core through which the strand can be withdrawn at high speed whilethe membrane assumes a conical configuration. The gage of the membraneis preferably 2-5 mils and most preferably comprises a 3.5 mil gage ofpolyethylene.

In our new method of continuously paying from a strand coil at highspeed, a shrinkable, tear-resistant membrane issealed over the coil andshrunk down tightly around it. A small opening is formed in the membraneover the open core of the coil, one end of the strand is paid throughthe opening and the strand is continuously withdrawn so as to distendthe membrane into a tapering guide leading to the opening.

Our method of shipping and paying off insulated electric wire,particularly, comprises the steps of forming the wire into a pluralityof coils, each comprising a large plurality of radial layers made up ofhelical windings of the wire. We then seal shrinkable, tear-resistant,polymeric membranes around the coils and shrink the membranesdowntightly against them. We form small apertures in the membranes at pointsover the open cores of the coils and stack a plurality of the coveredcoils in a fiberboard container which we ship to the utilization site ofthe wire. The coils are then removed from the containers, the ends ofthe wires are paid through the openings and the strands withdrawnthrough the openings so as to distend the membranes to form taperingguides.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OFTI-IE DRAWINGS FIG. lshows steps la-lk of a methodof our invention.

- FIG. 2 shows a pictorial view of a coil of our invention duringpay-off.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Although our inventionhas wide application to the dispensing of stranded materials such aswire and cable, hose and tubing, rope and, indeed, any elongated productthat may be shipped in the form of coils, as

distinguished from being shipped on flanged reels, we have confined thisdetailed description to the use of our invention for insulated wire forwhich purpose it has been widely tested. In FIG. 1a the wire 11 from alarge supply, not shown, is formed into a conventional coil 12 on acoiling machine 13 of a known type. This is done in the usual mannerofwinding one helical layer on a rotating mandrel 14 and continuing tocover this with another helical layer until a large number of layershave been built up required for the desired length of wire, usually 500'feet. The coil is removed from the coiling machine with an open core orspace 16 (FIG. 2) remaining from the withdrawal from the mandrel 14. Aninside end 17 of the coil 12 is free so that it can easily be seized forpay-off, as shall be more fully described. At this point also a printedcircular label 18 seen in FIG. 2 can be inserted in the core 16 beforefolding the coil in a sheet or membrane 19 of heat sealable, shrinkablepolyethylene. Although we do not wish to limit our invention topolyethylene, other materials such as nylon, and polypropylene beingalso usable we much prefer polyethylene because of its low cost, hightransparency, stretchability, ability to be sealed without addedadhesives, and resistance to tearing. This last feature is important, aswe shall show, and for this reason we do not consider polyvinylchloride, which might otherwise be serviceable, as suitable for themembrane 19. Three edges 21,22,23 of the membrane 19 are heat sealedbetween platens of a conventional sealing machine (not shown) to form acompletely enclosed membrane envelope around the coil 12, which is thenpassed through an oven 24 maintained at a temperature of 330 F. Thistemperature is sufficient to cause up to 40 percent shrinkage of themembrane having a gage or thickness of 33% mils in 5-l0 seconds withoutdamaging the wire 11. The gage of the membrane 19 is important to ourinvention and should not be less than 2 nor more than 5 mils, for if thegage is too low the membrane will not be sufficiently strong to keep thecoil from tangling, and if it is too heavy it will not allow themembrane to stretch during pay-off, as we shall show to be desirable.

When the coil 12 emerges from the oven 24 it is in the form of a tightlywrapped package 26 in which the coil is actually under some compressionfrom the shrunken membrane 19. It is a feature of our invention that themembrane covering is not used merely for shipping but remains on thecoil to keep it in shape during pay-off as we shall show, and for thispurpose an opening or aperture 27 is formed in the membrane by means ofa hot iron 28 at a point over the open core 16. The opening 27 is small,preferably no larger than a man will need to reach his thumb andforefinger into the core to pull out the free end 17. Three or four ofthe wrapped coils 26 are placed in a fiberboard carton 29 I depending onthe size of the wire and the length in each coil. We have found that ourinvention is particularly useful for round building wire cables up to0.58 inches in diameter and also for flat cable of the type known asnonmetallic-sheathed cable. In FIG. 1h we have shown a plurality of thecartons 29 being shipped to a building site or other site forinstallation.- This step may, of course, include an intermediateshipment and storage at a warehouse but in either case it is during thisstep that conventional coilshave usually been so jostled and vibratedthat the coil turns become interposed with the result that tangles occurwhen it is attempted to pay-off the wire. In the actual wide-spreadpractice of conventional building wire packaging we believe that tanglesoccur, at least once, in a majority of the coils being used. Thiscompares very unfavorably to the record for v the present inventionwhereby over 3,000,000 feet of wire have been distributed in coils andpaid out without a single tangle.

At the site the coils are removed from the carton 29 as shown at FIG. 1iand laid fiat for pay-off (FIG. lj). This is the most convenient way,and our packaged coils pay-off very well from a flat position. Wheredesired, however, the coil may be tilted and will actually pay-off verywell from any unobstructed position.

FIGS. 2 and 1k show wire being pulled out of the coil and stretching themembrane 19 to form a core or taper 31 with the opening 27 at its apex.We have found that even during a rough and jerky wire withdrawal thepolyethylene membranes will not tear so as to destroy the loop confiningand guiding means 31 and that the resiliency of the membranes, whichaccounts for the taper, permits a small spiral of wire to form withinthe confines of the package as it is being paid off. This fact and thefact that the shape of the coil has been firmly held by the compressiveaction of the membrane during shipping and up to the point where only afew turns of the coil remain is believed to account largely for thesuperior. performance of our supply unit shown in FIG. 2, and method. I

We have invented a new and useful product and method of which theforegoing description has been exemplary rather than definitive, and forwhich we desire an award of Letters Patent as defined in the followingclaims.

I claim:

1. A shipping and dispensing package comprising a. a coil comprising alarge plurality of radial layers,

' each of said layers comprising a helical winding of insulatedelectrical conductor around a central open core, and

b. coil enclosinfi and guiding means comprising 1. a thm-wa ed sretchable, polyethylene membrane having a gage of 2-5 mils snuglyenclosing and compressing said coil during shipping and dispensing, aportion of said membrane being stretched across said coil, and 2. aperipheral edge in said membrane defining, over said core, an opening ofa size sufficient to permit insertion of a mans fingers to pull out anend of said insulated conductor enclosed within said membrane, wherebysaid insulated conductor can be withdrawn at high speed from within saidmembrane and said membrane about said opening assumes the form ofatruncated cone with said opening at its apex which acts to guide saidinsulated conductor into a smaller spiral within the confines, of themembrane as it is being removed therefrom.

1. A shipping and dispensing package comprising a. a coil comprising alarge plurality of radial layers, each of said layers comprising ahelical winding of insulated electrical conductor around a central opencore, and b. coil enclosing and guiding means comprising
 1. athin-walled, stretchable, polyethylene membrane having a gage of 2-5mils snugly enclosing and compressing said coil during shipping anddispensing, a portion of said membrane being stretched across said coil,and
 2. a peripheral edge in said membrane defining, over said core, anopening of a size sufficient to permit insertion of a man''s fingers topull out an end of said insulated conductor enclosed within saidmembrane, whereby said insulated conductor can be withdrawn at highspeed from within said membrane and said membrane about said openingassumes the form of a truncated cone with said opening at its apex whichacts to guide said insulated conductor into a smaller spiral within theconfines, of the membrane as it is being removed therefrom.
 2. aperipheral edge in said membrane defining, over said core, an opening ofa size sufficient to permit insertion of a man''s fingers to pull out anend of said insulated conductor enclosed within said membrane, wherebysaid insulated conductor can be withdrawn at high speed from within saidmembrane and said membrane about said opening assumes the form of atruncated cone with said opening at its apex which acts to guide saidinsulated conductor into a smaller spiral within the confines, of themembrane as it is being removed therefrom.